New Labour’s psychodrama went global

Not as thick as he looked, Dubya. The Sunday Telegraph reports that the Bush administration urged Tony Blair to remain in office because it had ‘big concerns’ about working with the monomaniac Gordon Brown.  Here are the details:

‘Senior officials in the US administration sounded the alert after a meeting between Mr Brown and Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush’s secretary of state, in which Mr Brown “harangued” her over American policy on aid, development and Africa. After the uncomfortable session, sources said she reported her misgivings to the White House, and they were sent on in turn to Mr Blair. After taking the warnings on board, Mr Blair signaled his intention to stay on at No 10 until at least 2008, the year of the US election to choose a successor to Mr Bush. However, he was forced to abandon this plan following a “coup” led by Mr Brown’s supporters.